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Student activism absent from Karachi's campuses
KARACHI, Nov 11, 2007: Throughout recent history, student activism has globally been instrumental in agitating for change. Be it the Prague Spring, the events at the Sorbonne in 1968, the active participation of students in bringing about the downfall of Iran's last Shah or campaigning for reform post the 1979 Islamic revolution, students have been front and centre.
Closer to home, police action was initiated against students in Karachi in January 1953, when police opened fire on marchers, killing seven and wounding 59, when the students of D.J. Science College decided to march to the residence of Fazlur Rahman, the then education minister, to communicate their grievances. One of their demands was the reduction of tuition fees.
Students and teachers of the erstwhile East Pakistan's Dhaka University were also vocal in their opposition when General Ayub Khan took the reins of power in 1958, along with demonstrating for greater recognition of the Bengali language.
But recently, apart from a few sporadic bursts of dissent from Lahore, the students of Karachi have been awfully quiet ever since a state of emergency was clamped on the nation a week ago. After talking to various students and teachers at some of the city's educational institutes, it appears that apathy, political affiliation, fear of the unknown and purely academic pursuits have coalesced to ensure that the vast majority of this city's students will not be hitting the streets any time soon to stand and be counted.
Referring to the protests in Lahore, Dr Kaiser Bengali, a renowned scholar and lecturer at SZABIST, said that "Even in Lahore, the significant thing is that these protests are happening only at elite institutions. Not in Punjab University, where the student body belongs mostly to the middle class. Another reason might be the Islami Jamiat Talba's (IJT) control of that institution. Since the Jamaat-i-Islami, the parent body of that organisation, has not come out on the streets against the emergency, neither has the IJT.
"Plus the All Pakistan Muttahida Students' Organisation (APMSO, student wing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement) holds considerable sway over the University of Karachi. Since the MQM is part of the government, there have been no protests," he said.
Zainab, a recent graduate of KU, concurred with Dr Bengali's opinion.
"Naturally, all the political parties' student wings are following the lines of their parent parties. It goes to show how much freedom these student organizations really have. But are students quiet or are they tense? Are they waiting for something to happen? As for the leftist students, their presence is not very visible on campus. Maybe they've assimilated into other groups outside the university to express their sentiments. That's a big maybe," she said.
'Everyone here is dead'
A teacher at NED University, who asked not to be named, said that a mix of apathy and academics was also responsible for the political inaction.
"Everyone here is so dead – the students and the faculty. Besides, the students are taking their exams currently. The exams will continue till the end of the month, and then there will be a vacation. Also, asides from the APMSO and IJT, who have a running feud, we don't have any real political groups. Everything is very rigid here. Nobody wants to risk rustication or have to answer a show cause notice. The university administration is very strict, which is a good thing at times when students fight among themselves. But the students should have a voice. People are just too scared," she said.
Interestingly, many of the student groups in Karachi reach for each others' throats at the drop of a hat. But in times like these, the city's campuses are eerily quiet.
Perhaps people have lost interest in politics and matters of governance as a whole as they are too busy managing their day-to-day affairs, which can be a demanding task on its own. But as Zainab observed, "Why blame the students? What is the rest of society doing?". By Qasim A. Moini (Dawn)
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